Prize Winning Painter is a Chimp whose talent is being compared to Picasso

Brent, Louisiana Painting Chimpanzee, Wins 1st Prize In Art Contest


By JANET McCONNAUGHEY 08/29/13 08:05 PM ET EDT



Link:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/31/painting-chimpanzee_n_3848818.html













Follow:
Animals In The News, Brent Painting Chimpanzee, Human Society, Animal Art, Louisiana Chimpanzee Art Contest, Painting-Chimpanzee, Talented Animals, Weird News



NEW ORLEANS -- A painting by a 37-year-old Louisiana primate who applies color with his tongue instead of a brush has been deemed the finest chimpanzee art in the land.

Brent, a retired laboratory animal, was the top vote-getter in an online chimp art contest organized by the Humane Society of the United States, which announced the results Thursday. He won $10,000 for the Chimp Haven sanctuary in northwest Louisiana.

A Chimp Haven spokeswoman said Brent was unavailable for comment Thursday. "I think he's asleep," Ashley Gordon said.

But as the society said on its website, "The votes are in, so let the pant hooting begin!" – pant hooting being the characteristic call of an excited chimp.

Five other sanctuaries around the country competed, using paintings created during "enrichment sessions," which can include any of a wide variety of activities and playthings.

Chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall chose her favorite from photographs she was sent. That painting, by Cheetah, a male at Save the Chimps in Fort Pierce, Fla., won $5,000 as Goodall's choice and another $5,000 for winning second place in online voting, Humane Society spokeswoman Nicole Ianni said.

Ripley from the Center for Great Apes in Wauchula, Fla., won third place and $2,500.

More than 27,000 people voted, Ianni said in a news release. The organization is not giving vote totals "to keep the focus on the positive work of the sanctuaries and not necessarily the `winner,'" she said in an email. The sanctuaries care for chimpanzees retired from research, entertainment and the pet trade. Chimp Haven is the national sanctuary for those retired from federal research.

Other submitted paintings were by Jamie, a female at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest in Cle Elum, Wash.; Jenny, a female at Primate Rescue Center in Nicholasville, Ky.; and Patti, a female at Chimps Inc. in Bend, Ore.


A profile of Brent on the Humane Society's website says he has lived at Chimp Haven since 2006, is protective of an even older chimp at the sanctuary and "loves to laugh and play." 

It continues, "Brent paints only with his tongue. His unique approach and style, while a little unorthodox, results in beautiful pieces of art."

Cathy Willis Spraetz, Chimp Haven's president and CEO, said she chose a painting by Brent partly because of that unusual method. She said she later held a canvas up to the mesh of his indoor cage so she could watch him at work.

Some other chimps use brushes or point to the colors they want on the canvas, but Brent comes up to smush pre-applied blobs of child-safe tempera paints with his tongue, she said.

"If we handed the canvas to them where it was on the inside, they might not want to hand it back," she said. "They might throw it around and step on it." 


 

Chimpanzee wins $10,000 prize for abstract painting

Former lab animal Brent triumphs in a chimpanzee art contest in US, with prize money going towards his home sanctuary

 

A way with colour … a section of the winning painting created by Brent, a chimpanzee at Chimp Haven in Keithville, Louisiana. Photograph: Meredith Lee/AP


From The Guardian:

“All of the art was beautiful and unique – just like the chimpanzees,” said Goodall. “It was difficult to choose. It’s so important that the public support all of these sanctuaries in their mission to provide exceptional care to chimpanzees, and other primates, who have suffered through so much.”

The winning sanctuaries will receive grants to help care for chimpanzees retired from research, entertainment, and the pet trade.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/brent-the-chimp-wins-first-place-and-10000-in-art-competition.html#ixzz2fqf6ckk6

Source:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/31/painting-chimpanzee_n_3848818.html


Links:  http://www.care2.com/causes/brent-the-chimp-wins-first-place-and-10000-in-art-competition.html


http://www.peoplepets.com/people/pets/article/0,,20730365,00.html


http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/aug/30/chimpanzee-wins-10000-dollars-abstract-painting

Painting Chimp

Brent, Louisiana Painting Chimpanzee, Wins 1st Prize In Art Contest


By JANET McCONNAUGHEY 08/29/13 08:05 PM ET EDT



Link:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/31/painting-chimpanzee_n_3848818.html












Follow:
Animals In The News, Brent Painting Chimpanzee, Human Society, Animal Art, Louisiana Chimpanzee Art Contest, Painting-Chimpanzee, Talented Animals, Weird News








NEW ORLEANS -- A painting by a 37-year-old Louisiana primate who applies color with his tongue instead of a brush has been deemed the finest chimpanzee art in the land.

Brent, a retired laboratory animal, was the top vote-getter in an online chimp art contest organized by the Humane Society of the United States, which announced the results Thursday. He won $10,000 for the Chimp Haven sanctuary in northwest Louisiana.

A Chimp Haven spokeswoman said Brent was unavailable for comment Thursday. "I think he's asleep," Ashley Gordon said.

But as the society said on its website, "The votes are in, so let the pant hooting begin!" – pant hooting being the characteristic call of an excited chimp.

Five other sanctuaries around the country competed, using paintings created during "enrichment sessions," which can include any of a wide variety of activities and playthings.

Chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall chose her favorite from photographs she was sent. That painting, by Cheetah, a male at Save the Chimps in Fort Pierce, Fla., won $5,000 as Goodall's choice and another $5,000 for winning second place in online voting, Humane Society spokeswoman Nicole Ianni said.

Ripley from the Center for Great Apes in Wauchula, Fla., won third place and $2,500.

More than 27,000 people voted, Ianni said in a news release. The organization is not giving vote totals "to keep the focus on the positive work of the sanctuaries and not necessarily the `winner,'" she said in an email. The sanctuaries care for chimpanzees retired from research, entertainment and the pet trade. Chimp Haven is the national sanctuary for those retired from federal research.

Other submitted paintings were by Jamie, a female at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest in Cle Elum, Wash.; Jenny, a female at Primate Rescue Center in Nicholasville, Ky.; and Patti, a female at Chimps Inc. in Bend, Ore.


A profile of Brent on the Humane Society's website says he has lived at Chimp Haven since 2006, is protective of an even older chimp at the sanctuary and "loves to laugh and play." It continues, "Brent paints only with his tongue. His unique approach and style, while a little unorthodox, results in beautiful pieces of art."

Cathy Willis Spraetz, Chimp Haven's president and CEO, said she chose a painting by Brent partly because of that unusual method. She said she later held a canvas up to the mesh of his indoor cage so she could watch him at work.

Some other chimps use brushes or point to the colors they want on the canvas, but Brent comes up to smush pre-applied blobs of child-safe tempera paints with his tongue, she said.

"If we handed the canvas to them where it was on the inside, they might not want to hand it back," she said. "They might throw it around and step on it."





Source:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/31/painting-chimpanzee_n_3848818.html

Texting and Driving

Hi there! I'm so excited!!!


I just learned how to text!!!













New technologies bring with them a whole set of new problems...

No Riding the Rhino

 

Elephants/Rhinos #2

Rex's wife Eva and Thor - -          Source:  http://bucklesw.blogspot.ca/2013/09/elephantsrhinos-2.html

Print Auction

 

 

 

Prints

The first sale in Swann's very busy May 2013 schedule of auctions was Old Master Through Modern Prints on the first day of the month. George Bellows's 1917 lithograph A Stag at Sharkey's brought $168,000, making it a record for any print by the artist at auction and the top lot of the day. Works by Edward Hopper, Martin Lewis, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Grant Wood also sold particularly well. 

George Bellows, A Stag at Sharkey's, lithograph, 1917.

Among Old Master prints, Melencolia I by Albrecht Dürer achieved the highest price of the day, selling for $132,000. Created the same year as Dürer's St. Jerome in his Study and Knight, Death and the Devil, the print is considered one of Dürer's master (or meisterstiche) engravings.

Albrecht Dürer, Melencolia I, engraving, 1514. 

Rembrandt van Rijn's Christ Healing the Sick (The Hundred Guilder Print) was said to be sold for 100 Dutch Guilders in the 17th century when it was created. In this auction, it sold for $90,000. 

Rembrandt van Rijn, Christ Healing the Sick (The Hundred Guilder Print), etching, engraving and drypoint,  circa 1643-49.

Posted 6th May by Alex Nelson

Labels: George Bellows Pablo Picasso Edward Hopper auction records Martin Lewis Rembrandt Old Master through Modern Prints Albrecht Durer Henri Matisse Grant Wood

Daumier's View of a Tragedy

 

Among the highlights of our September 12 auction of 19th & 29th Century Prints & Drawings is Honoré Daumier's Rue Transnonain, le 15 Avril 1834, a lithograph from 1834.

Daumier (1808-1879) was one of the leading draftsmen of controversial and highly critical political caricatures that cleverly captured the political strife prevalent throughout France in the 19th century. Born in Marseilles and raised in Paris, Daumier began studying art in 1822 under painter Alexandre Lenior, then enrolled for a short time in the Académie Suisse, and continued training as an apprentice under master lithographer Zépherin Belliard. By 1830 he was producing caricatures depicting the foibles of the bourgeoisie and the corruption of the government for Charles Philipon's satirical political newspaper Le Caricature. The scathing political caricatures Daumier produced for Le Caricature and Philipon's other publications were often fined and censored by King Louis-Philippe's officials, and one caricature depicting Louis-Philippe as Gargantua resulted in Daumier receiving a sentence of six months in prison. 

Rue Transnonain was the final work in a series of five-large scale lithographs made by Daumier for L'Association Mensuelle, Philipon's private company that published monthly prints for subscribers to help pay off the censorship fines incurred by Philipon's newspapers. The scene is not at all a satire, but is instead intended to be a neutral depiction of a working-class family mercilessly murdered in their own home in the Parisian district of St. Martin during the suppression of a riot on April 15th, 1834. Daumier skillfully utilized chiaroscuro effects to heighten the horror of the scene and to draw the viewer's eye to the violated and helpless bloodied bodies strewn throughout the scene, including that of a small child partially covered by the dead man in the center of the composition. Immediately following the publication of this print, the stone was confiscated by Louis-Philippe's officials and remaining impressions were destroyed.











Source:  http://swanngalleriesinc.blogspot.ca/2013/09/notes-from-catalogue-daumiers-view-of.html?view=magazine

Cat on a bench

Cat on a bench in Locke, an unincorporated community in the Sacramento/San Joaqin River Delta in California. Creator(s): Highsmith, Carol M., 1946-, photographer. Date Created / Published: 2012. Medium: 1 photograph : digital, tiff file, color. Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-highsm-23102 (original digital file)

Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.

Call Number: LC-DIG-highsm- 23102 (ONLINE) [P&P] Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print.

Notes: Also known as the Locke Historic District, it was established after a fire broke out in the Chinese section of nearby Walnut Grove. Chinese merchants approached landowner George Locke and inquired if they could build on his land. He consented and the little town was laid out by Chinese architects. Title, date, and keywords provided by the photographer.

Credit line: The Jon B. Lovelace Collection of California Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America Project, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Gift; The Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation in memory of Jon B. Lovelace; 2012; (DLC/PP-2012:063). Forms part of: Jon B. Lovelace Collection of California Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America Project in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive.

Subjects: United States--California--Locke. Chinese. George Locke. America. Format: Digital photographs--Color--2010-2020. Collections: Highsmith (Carol M.) Archive. Part of: Highsmith, Carol M., 1946- Carol M. Highsmith Archive.

About the Carol M. Highsmith Archive

The online presentation of the Carol M. Highsmith Archive features photographs of landmark buildings and architectural renovation projects in Washington, D.C., and throughout the United States. The first 23 groups of photographs contain more than 2,500 images and date from 1980 to 2005, with many views in color as well as black-and-white. Extensive coverage of the Library of Congress Jefferson Building was added in 2007. The archive is expected to grow to more than 100,000 photographs covering all of the United States.

Highsmith, a distinguished and richly-published American photographer, has donated her work to the Library of Congress since 1992. Starting in 2002, Highsmith provided scans or photographs she shot digitally with new donations to allow rapid online access throughout the world. Her generosity in dedicating the rights to the American people for copyright free access also makes this Archive a very special visual resource.

Posted by sookietex at 9:55 AM 0 comments || || Links to this post  



 Source:  http://publicdomainclip-art.blogspot.ca/




 

A gynandromorph of the Common Blue butterfly

  This  very cool looking butterfly caught my attention...

A gynandromorph of the Common Blue butterfly

I have featured gynandromorphs before.  This one is particularly nice because of the striking sexual dimorphism of the species.

Photo by Burkhard Hinnersmann, via Gerard Vlemmings' The Presurfer.

 

 

 

 Source:  http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.ca/2013/09/a-gynandromorph-of-common-blue-butterfly.html

Samurai Kitchen Knives

For most households these replicas mwould be more practical than having a 3 foot sword hanging around the place.

Samurai Kitchen Knives

September 11th, 2013 | Tech |

Creative knives designed to look like traditional Japanese swords that were used by the brave and honorable Samurai warriors.

Beautiful knife set for your kitchen includes four sharp knives and comes with ceremonial presentation stand.
Now you can finally prepare your food the Samurai way! [order]

Samurai Kitchen Knife Set

Link: http://www.toxel.com/tech/2013/09/11/samurai-kitchen-knives/

Multiple Choice

  

 

Saint-Arnould, patron saint of brewers Celebrated

Members of the Knighthood of the Brewers' Mash staff attend a mass in front of a barrel of beer at the Sint-Gudule Cathedral in Brussels, during celebrations of Saint-Arnould, patron saint of brewers, September 6, 2013. 
REUTERS/Francois Lenoir (BELGIUM - Tags: SOCIETY RELIGION)




Photo By FRANCOIS LENOIR/REUTERS Fri, 6 Sep, 2013

A priest blesses a barrel of beer as members of the Knighthood of the Brewers' Mash staff take part in celebrations of Saint-Arnould, patron saint of brewers, during a mass at the Sint-Gudule Cathedral in Brussels September 6, 2013. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir (BELGIUM - Tags: SOCIETY RELIGION)




 
Members of the Knighthood of the Brewers' Mash staff carry a barrel of beer inside the Sint-Gudule Cathedral in Brussels, during celebrations of Saint-Arnould, patron saint of brewers, September 6, 2013. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir (BELGIUM - Tags: SOCIETY RELIGION)

Members of the Knighthood of the Brewers' Mash staff carry a barrel of beer inside the Sint-Gudule Cathedral in Brussels, during celebrations of Saint-Arnould, patron saint of brewers, September 6, 2013. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir (BELGIUM)  

A barrel of beer is seen during a mass at the Sint-Gudule Cathedral in Brussels, as members of the Knighthood of the Brewers' Mash staff take part in celebrations of Saint-Arnould, patron saint of brewers, September 6, 2013. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir (BELGIUM - Tags: SOCIETY RELIGION)

Saint-Arnould, patron saint of brewers Celebrated

 Source:  http://ca.news.yahoo.com/photos/patron-saint-of-brewers-celebrated-slideshow/members-knighthood-brewers-mash-staff-carry-barrel-beer-photo-132355089.html

Weegee Photos

Via: Weegee World
- Heat Spell, May 23, 1941

The hot weather last night took Weegee, the photographer, to the Lower East Side, where he found these children sleeping on a tenement fire escape at Irving and Rivington Streets.
Weegee says he gave the kids $2 for ice cream.
But their father took charge of the dough.
~

  

"He will take his camera and ride off in search of new evidence that his city, even in her most drunken and disorderly and pathetic moments, is beautiful."

- William McCleery in Naked City

 

Weegee as Clown, Covers Circus From the Inside, July 9, 1943

Blowing soap bubbles is fun, too..., Washington Square Park c. 1944 Girls at the Bar, c. 1946

See more photos, HERE:

http://museum.icp.org/museum/collections/special/weegee/

Capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris)

The capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), the largest and CUDDLIEST rodent in the world.

Via: Good Stuff Happened Today

***

***

http://goodstuffhappenedtoday.tumblr.com/
=====
The capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) is the largest rodent in the world, followed by the beaver, porcupine, and mara.
Its closest relatives are agouti, chinchillas, coypu, and guinea pigs.
Native to South America, the capybara inhabits savannas and dense forests and lives near bodies of water. It is a highly social species and can be found in groups as large as 100 individuals, but usually lives in groups of 10–20 individuals. The capybara is not a threatened species, though it is hunted for its meat and hide and also for a grease from its thick fatty skin which is used in the pharmaceutical trade.
http://seattle98.wordpress.com/?p=19819&preview=true
.

July 31, 2013 Posted by seattle99 | cats/dogs/goats/bears/whatever | capybara, gif, the way it should be | Leave a Comment

 Source:  http://seattle98.wordpress.com/2013/07/

  
 

worldlyanimals:

Frogfish (Spamily)

 



 




 

chuskopan:

fairy-wren:

australian pelican
(photo by sourourgif)

 

geisterseher:

Clément-Pierre Marillier (1740-1808). Oeuvre de Marillier: Illustrations pour les Contes de fées

 

buddhabrot:

me da lioness princess

 


 


 




 

(via )

Tagged: crow gothic macabre skeleton skull horror

llbwwb:

allcreatures:

This turtle shows no fear as it hitches a ride on an alligator. Photographer Connie Lemperle captured the chums at play while at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
Picture: Connie Lemperle/ solent (via Pictures of the day: 8 September 2011 - Telegraph)

 


 


 

(via buddhabrot)

eclektic:

Lightning striking the Eiffel Tower
June 3, 1902
Photo by M.G. Loppé

(via bolto)

Source:  fairy-wren: australian pelican(photo by sourourgif)fairy-wren:australian pelican(photo by sourourgif)